Everything Comes at a Price
by Dark Alchemist666
Summary: When the walls have fallen. What will the few saviours do to save the world. Anything they possibly could. FOR HUMANITY!
1. Chapter 1

Everything Comes at a Price

All hell had broken loose: there was a gaping hole in the wall, the titans were everywhere, and people were scrambling in a hopeless attempt to not be devoured.

And in the midst of it all stood the armored titan.

The new Special Ops Squad had just been sent in, consisting of Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Jean Kirkstein. and Lance Corporal Levi Ackerman.

As the five whipped themselves across the battlefield with their 3D Maneuver Gear, Armin yelled, "Eren! Mikasa! Try to see if you can find a weak point on his body! Jean and I will distract him!" The 2 obediently split away from the group.

"Why do **I **have to be part of the distraction?" Jean complained.

"Because if Eren, Mikasa, or Captain Levi is injured or dies, we're practically fucked!" Armin responded.

Jean shut himself up after that, accepting the painful truth.

"_Who said __**YOU **__could give the orders, you little shit?" _Levi thought to himself.

Despite his frustration over his lack of authority, Levi trailed Eren and Mikasa, making sure that the little brats didn't screw anything up.

He landed on a rooftop, glaring at the monstrosity before him.

"It's only natural that you came for the colossal brat, you piece of shit" he murmured.

In the week prior to the armored titan's appearance, the Recon Corps had miraculously captured Bertoldt, but was unable to get any sort of answers from him. So it became necessary to capture Reiner as well, him being the last one with the capability of breaking through the walls.

To Levi, capturing (or eliminating, if it came to that) the armored titan seemed like an almost impossible task.

Almost.

After all, he DID subdue the female titan, a feat that not even four elite titan hunters and the rogue titan could accomplish.

He saw Armin and Jean, taunting the walking fortress as Eren and Mikasa surveyed the terrain of the titan's body.

What happened next was something that even Levi found horrifying.

The armored titan had swung its entire upper torso around at an impossible speed for its size and a bone-chilling CRACK echoed towards Wall Sina.

Yes, the Special Operations Squad was defending the gates of Wall Sina, Humanity's last stronghold for survival, and the backbone of the squad's success had just been snapped in two.

"EREN!" Mikasa yelled in despair at her fallen adoptive brother.

There was no sign of life coming from Eren's direction.

She began to change her course toward the area where he had crashed.

Suddenly, Levi grabbed her arm and dragged her to the farthest rooftop.

Once their feet were firmly placed on the structure, Mikasa asked with a fury that could only be matched by Eren himself, "What the HELL do you think you're doing?!"

"Preventing a needless death," Levi answered in a calming tone.

"Don't give me that shit, shortstack," Mikasa growled, "My brother is seriously hurt, and I don't need assholes like you holding me back from beating the living hell out of the one who is responsible for his pain."

"I understand that you're flipping your shit over the kid. Here's the thing, though: he's most likely dead."

The possibility hit her like a cannonball, and she cringed at the thought of it.

"And if you don't get your head together, there are going to be a LOT more people that are going to-"

"No," the girl with the red scarf mumbled.

"What was that?"

"No, he's NOT dead."

Levi grabbed her by her collar.

"Look, I don't know what sort of demented fantasy YOU'RE seeing, but snap the hell out of it! Eren's GONE, and you know it!"

There was a brief period of silence after that.

Then there was a sob, and soon, Mikasa found herself bawling her eyes out.

"WHYYYY? WHY HIM? WHY NOT ME?" she screamed at the heavens.

Levi quickly clapped his hand over the girl's mouth.

"Do you want us BOTH to die?" he scolded.

Slowly, Mikasa shook her head, and he let go.

"Ok," Levi said, "if you don't want Eren to have died for nothing, then help me take this bastard down."

He drew his swords and jumped off the rooftop.

As calmly as she could, Mikasa got a hold of her emotions and followed her superior.

...

The two slowly approached the titan, who was getting ready to charge through yet another wall.

When they got close enough, they latched onto the back of its shoulder blades and performed a synchronized spinning move that merely annoyed the giant. Once they had its attention, they saw Armin flee with Jean limply hanging onto his shoulders.

Levi turned his attention back to the titan and both Ackermans launched another spinning maneuver, this time butchering the giant's arms.

However, the titan launched its counterattack by grabbing onto their wires and hurling them across the city.

Luckily, the two had managed to launch their second wires onto the titan's legs, where they obliterated its Achilles' tendons.

The armored titan fell onto one knee, but it still looked like it could still fight.

After their close encounter with being flung helplessly into the air, Levi took a quick rest to strategize on how to bring the monster down for good.

Mikasa had other ideas.

She recklessly threw herself back towards the titan, blades at the ready.

Levi sighed in disappointment and followed her.

But then he felt something digging into his leg.

He turned around and glared into the face of an airborne titan.

"Tch, careless..."

Out of pure desperation and for the sake of the mission, he raised his sword and chopped off the now useless appendage. After taking a second to adjust to his lighter, yet more painful, condition, he clung onto the titan's neck and sliced the nape.

As soon as he followed through with the cut, he hopped off with his good leg and continued towards the armored titan.

With his new injury, though, he became clumsy and was unable to control his movements, and he tumbled onto the ground, stopping only to go head-first into the wall of a house.

Dazed and weakened, he raised himself up and latched onto the side of the armored titan's neck.

He used all the gas that he could to accelerate him towards the beast, and was able to cut into it just as it reached for a defeated and unconscious Mikasa.

Levi looked back, and saw a deep incision in the back of the titan's neck, where Reiner Braun was now exposed.

The raven-haired man grinned as a giant hand slammed him into another building.

Levi, former champion of humanity, now lay broken beneath a pile of rubble. He stared up at the dark sky and whispered, "Gunter, Eld, Auruo... Petra... I can finally see you all again..."

With the last of his strength, he gave a crooked salute, and closed his eyes as he heard a familiar roar in the distance...


	2. Chapter 2

Epilogue

"We've found another body!" yelled one of the Garrison soldiers as they searched amongst the ruin that was once a beautiful inner city.

Commander Hanji Zöe walked up to where the said body was as she was collecting their Recon Corps insignia patches. At first, it seemed as though nothing was out of the ordinary: just another corpse below a pile of rubble. However, as she got a closer look, she saw the cravat, the raven-colored hair, and the clenched fist over the heart: the salute to Humanity.

Hanji recoiled back at the sight of Humanity's strongest soldier lying dead in front of her.

How could this have happened? she thought to herself, I thought that he'd be the LAST one of us to go...

She picked up the soldier's small, but solid body and walked him to a cart where the dead were laid onto.

As the cart rolled away, she made a mental note to hold a meeting the following afternoon.

...

Two lines stood underneath a willow tree the next day: one for what was left of the Recon Corps and the Garrison, the other for the Military Police. Down the center, Moblit, Hanji, and two other soldiers from the corps carried the casket towards the headstone.

Eren Yeager, who stood right next to the grave, got a good long look at the captain's lifeless body: he had his signature cravat still tied to his neck, his clothing was immaculately clean, and not a speck of blood was on him. Ignoring the fact that he was missing his left leg, he looked as if he were peacefully sleeping.

Levi was then lowered into the six-foot hole, and was buried after a salute from both lines.

Once the grave was completely filled, the crowd dispersed, leaving only Mikasa and Eren standing by the tree where Levi was just laid to rest.

They both stood in silence until Mikasa said, "Eren..."

He tilted his head in her direction.

"Why do you look sad?" she continued.

"... I don't want to talk about it, Mikasa."

"But I don't want you to feel sad, Eren."

"I said I didn't want to talk about it."

"Eren, is it because Heichou is dead?"

"Mikasa, I-"

"He died a hero, Eren. He-"

"MIKASA, I SAID STOP!"

She jumped back a little at the sudden outburst.

"What if I told you that all of THIS," he gestured to the tombstone, "could've been avoided? What if I said that if i had been able to turn into a titan sooner, NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED?"

"..."

"I'M THE REASON THAT HEICHOU IS DEAD, MIKASA. DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FEELS?"

"... Eren... it wasn't your fault..."

He got right up in her face and screamed, "THERE YOU GO AGAIN, TELLING ME THAT IT WASN'T MY FAULT FOR SOMETHING THAT I FUCKED UP. WELL YOU KNOW WHAT, MIKASA? YOU CAN'T PULL THAT SHIT THIS TIME! I'M A MURDERER, MIKASA! A MURDERER!"

As a brief silence passed, the tension hung in the air like a cannonball that was about to explode.

Then wrapped her arms around him and put her face up to his ear.

"I-I don't think that you're a murderer..." she whispered nervously.

She pulled back and said to his face, "Don't say such things, Eren..."

She hugged him again.

"I swore that I'd protect you until the day I die."

Eren just stayed quiet until he finally replied, "Why?"

"W-What?"

"Why do you go such lengths for my sake? I can take care of myself just as is, but you take this whole 'protection' thing way too far. Why do you do it?"

"... I just wanted you to be safe... I couldn't stand you degrading yourself day by day, taking the blame for every bad thing that happens to us. I just didn't want you to be in pain..."

There was a pause.

Eren then pushed her away and smiled.

"I'll be fine, Mikasa, and I can try to stop taking the blame for everything. But you have to promise me one thing."

She looked up with a bright light in her eyes.

"What is it?"

"You have to stop following me on every expedition."

"... But-"

"No excuses. Just leave me alone, and I won't feel bad anymore, OK?"

She hesitated for a bit, but then slowly nodded.

"If it will make you happy," she said in a very monotonous manner.

He hugged her one last time and said, "Thanks, Mikasa."

He pulled away from her and left.

Mikasa stood there, not knowing what to do now, until she looked at Levi's grave one last time, and walked off in the opposite direction.

...

On their next expedition (i.e. kill the titans in the lesser-known areas of Wall Maria), Mikasa simply followed her orders; she killed every last titan that got in her way. However, her horse had fled from the scene and she was now left to travel with nothing but her maneuver gear.

It was only a matter of time before she ran out of gas, though.

She could hear the screams of her comrades in the distance, but she didn't pay any attention to them. That sort of thing wasn't unusual in the Recon Corps.

As she zipped through the air on her 3DMG, she wondered how Eren was doing.

She shook her head, repeating to herself, I shouldn't even be thinking about him. I promised that I'd leave him be. I want him to be happy.

So she continued through the abandoned town.

Then she heard a roar. Obviously, it was Eren, who was probably trying to get himself out of a tight spot. Mikasa just ignored it and went about her business.

However, she couldn't resist the urge to look back and see how he was doing.

What she saw was utterly horrifying.

To the right was Titan Eren. To the left was a titan of about the same size except that this one had hair all over its body.

Eren lashed out and threw a punch aimed for the titan's face, but it dodged it and was able to have his arm in a hold with one swift movement.

Mikasa turned herself around and headed towards them.

Eren tried to land another punch, but the hairy titan used its other arm to block it and rip off his arm.

Mikasa sped along even faster towards the fight.

The titan then tore open Eren's neck with its good hand and snatched him up like smiling titan did Carla Yeager.

At this point, Mikasa was headed towards the titan's nape at a blinding speed, hoping to save Eren.

In a flash, however, a hand had imprisoned her body, and her surprise attack had come to a hault.

"Good try, human," the titan said in perfect human speech, "but I'm not as dim-witted as my brethren."

She watched in horror as the titan opened its mouth and placed Eren in between its massive jaws.

In his last moments, Eren managed to say, "Mikasa, you broke your promise..."

The titan's mouth closed.

Normally, that wouldn't do much to Eren since he had amazing regenerative powers from being a titan-shifter.

However, there was no steam coming from his body this time. The only thing that came out of it was his blood.

The titan threw away what used to be Eren as if it were garbage.

Mikasa yelled out, tears streaming from her eyes, "WHAT. DID. YOU. DO. TO. HIM."

The titan looked at her and smiled.

"I made sure that he wasn't a problem anymore. Simple as that."

"...YOU'RE WRONG!"

The titan continued to smile.

"HE WILL COME BACK. HE ALWAYS HAS. AND WHEN HE DOES, HE WILL RIP YOU APART LIMB-FROM-LIMB."

"My dear, he isn't coming back. I made sure of it."

She could feel the tears welling up.

"But... But..."

"Your loved one is dead."

She looked down in defeat. She had to face the reality that Eren was gone, and her mind was now drowned in an ocean of darkness.

"That's it, human. Wallow in your sorrows. Your precious 'hope' has only left you disappointed."

While in her trance-like state, she saw Eren, who looked perfectly fine at the moment.

"Hi, Mikasa," he said in a warm, comforting tone.

"Eren?" she responded.

He nodded.

She leapt a him and gave him a huge hug, a river of tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Mikasa! Not now! You're making me feel weird!"

"But... But you're alive..."

He grabbed her by the shoulders so that he could speak to her face.

"Mikasa, I want you to listen to me. I want you to talk to that man over there."

He pointed to a figure that was sitting in a wooden chair.


End file.
